IWSG

By volume, I mean the amount of work I put out. Or rather the amount of work I imagine putting out, compared to how much is actually getting done.

I feel like I'm failing as a writer because over the past 3 months I've written about 20,000 words in my latest novel attempt. It's not a matter of the idea being bad - in fact I'm very much enjoying playing with the idea. It's just that I'm finding less and less time to devote to the act of writing. I've gone back to school, and classwork is taking up more time than I thought possible. That, on top of the rest of life, fills up my days, and I'm often just tired at the end of the day.

You might say: "Why don't you try waking up early to write?" To which I say: "No." I've tried it, and all it does it make my day even longer.

I know it's going to take forever to write this novel because of my process, which involves handwriting the first draft, typing it up with some basic edits along the way; then fleshing out of the story, and finally edit, edit, edit until I'm sick to death of it. Wait two months. Edit some more.

I know that's generally the process most writers go through (minus the handwriting), but since I'm not magically pounding out 50,000 words a month I must just be doing something wrong. I know I'm not doing anything wrong, but it feels like I am.

Welcome back to Achievements/Goals. I missed several postings, because my laptop crapped out on me. I had been making it work for almost a year after my 90 pound dog jumped on it, breaking a hinge, and cracking the bevel around the screen; but every time I moved the stupid thing the the lid moved a little, eventually causing chunks of plastic to break off and about a third of the screen to go black. When faced with the decision of whether to repair it or replace it, I went the repair route which took three weeks.

Hey, did you know that Toshiba no longer makes computers? Well, I didn't until I went to get mine fixed. Apparently, replacement parts have to be hand delivered from Japan, because that's how long it felt like I was sans laptop.

Hey, do you know how much it costs to replace basically the entire lid of a Toshiba laptop? Neither did I until I had to choke back the tears as I handed my credit card to the Geek Squad guy.

Good Evening. I missed some time, yes. I got busy with life, but I hope to be back on track. Without further ado, here's what has happened over the past couple of weeks:

Achievements I've been slowly working my way through Camp NaNoWriMo this month. I fell of the wagon pretty hard after four days, but with my low word count goal, it has been fairly easy to make up the lost time. I think I'll be able to finish within goal.I did a reading at my writing group two weeks ago. I got positive comments all around, which surprised me, because I was pretty sure that the best thing I could bring to the table was mediocre. I'm still not ready to accept positive feedback. That's the weirdest thing with me. I will absolutely accept criticism without fail, but give me a compliment, and I'm sure you're "just being nice."GoalsPretty much the same as they have been. I'm trying to just get myself on a baseline of competence before trying anything new.Continue to …